Cb360 not charging after combo reg/rect install

What's happening:
With battery fully charged, I'll ride for 15-20 minutes and my battery will be dead. I can't figure out what it is. Help! It's getting nice out, finally!

What I did prior to problem:
1. Installed a kohler combo regulator rectifier unit. Connected the existing wires from the old rectifier to the new combo unit. Removed old regulator and did not reconnect any wires that were going to that unit to anything else.
2. Bypassed headlight switch for charging upgrade. Connected the white wire coming out of the generator to the yellow wire that now goes from the generator straight to the kohler unit.

What I've checked:
1. Current from pos to neg battery terminals at idle are around 12.3 volts and climbs with revs
2. Made sure battery cover was on so the seat frame wasn't creating a short somehow by touching the terminals
3. Checked all connections to make sure they're not loose

Thoughts:
1. The black power wire used to connect to the old regulator. Does that need to be re-connected to anything?
2. There might be a short somewhere that I'm missing. 20 minutes seems really fast for the battery to die if it's just not charging.
3. New kohler unit may be bad. I checked it with a continuity light and even with the key off, there's power coming from all 3 connections. Is that normal?

new wiring diagram that shows how the bike is currently wired. The only thing different is that the rr is not grounded directly to the frame directly but from the mounting bolt to a green ground wire



What do you think could be happening? Thanks!

Can you post the old wiring diagram? We'll need to see what you changed. Bad news is if the regulator was connected improperly, there's a very good chance it's fried.

Also, try following this guide: http://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf

Thanks for that diagram! I'll start working through it tomorrow.

I built my wiring diagram off this one that I got from google



As far as having it installed wrong, I did originally have it grounding to the battery box, which I later found out was not a ground at all because the battery box is mounted to the frame with bushings. So I then connected the ground wire from the original rectifier to the mounting bolt of the new unit. Could that have fried it?

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If everything else is working (horn, lights, blinkers, etc.) then I'd make sure the reg/rect is securely grounded. The metal body of the Koehler units is the ground.

To do this, grab a multimeter and set it to the diode checking setting. It should beep whenever a connection is made. Make sure the everything is going where you think it is by putting one lead at each end of the wire and listening for a beep from the multimeter. Try it between the body of the reg/rect and ground.

The horn actually doesn't work. But everything else does. That's actually one of the things that threw me for a loop. But I assumed it was broken because everything else works. And if I make a complete circuit for the horn it still doesn't do anything. I have the body of the rectifier grounded to a ground wire that connects around the mounting bolt. The wires are definitely going where they should be. No loom around my harness at the moment so it's easy to follow everything. I'll check out the diode mode on my multimeter. I've never used that feature before.

Oh and my fuses are all fine.

Also, the regulator I bought is part number ro-31-8969 if that helps any

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Inside your headlight bucket be sure that you have a yellow wire (male) that is connected to a white (female) wire with a yellow tip. That is the loop back to your reg/rect and stator. You appear to have removed that in your new diagram.

That connection was bypassed by connecting the white and yellow wires coming out of the generator. Did I do something wrong there? I just disconnected those two wires under the tank though. They didn't go to the headlight bucket.

thrillseeker said:

That connection was bypassed by connecting the white and yellow wires coming out of the generator. Did I do something wrong there? I just disconnected those two wires under the tank though. They didn't go to the headlight bucket.

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I don't think so. That's how I did it on my CB125S. I'll go double check and make sure though.

Edit: Yep that's exactly what you should do. Jump the white to the yellow coming from the stator. I did mine in not the most elegant of ways, but it works. Here's a photo:

thrillseeker said:

1. Current from pos to neg battery terminals at idle are around 12.3 volts and climbs with revs

Click to expand...

What voltage level does it climb to?

It went up to about 13 but I didn't rev it very high. Maybe up to 4k.

@nrcb125, I checked the ground connection from the body of the reg/rect and it has a good connection. Something strange though is that I'm getting 12.6 volts going through that connection even when the ignition is off. Is that normal? Seems like it would be constantly be draining the battery

Currently charging the battery and putting the tank back on so I can follow the guide to diagnose the charging system

Also, for what it's worth I really dislike the Koehler units. I was much happier using a reg/rect from a GY6 scooter. One just like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Pin-VOLTAGE-REGULATOR-RECTIFIER-GY6-50cc-90cc-110cc-150cc-MOPED-SCOOTER-ATV-/191120467715?pt=Motors_ATV_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2c7faae703&vxp=mtr

On the one I received the wiring was:
Top Left: B+
Top Right: AC1
Bottom Left: AC2
Bottom Right: GND

With the completely flat side at the bottom. It should be obvious in the pictures what I mean. The GY6 reg/rect are good for ~150W of output.

thrillseeker said:

Something strange though is that I'm getting 12.6 volts going through that connection even when the ignition is off. Is that normal? Seems like it would be constantly be draining the battery.

Currently charging the battery and putting the tank back on so I can follow the guide to diagnose the charging system

Click to expand...

Which connection? The center spade on the R/R?

That's normal to read voltage there when the bike is off. There's no connection to ground from that point, so you're OK. If you're getting voltage on either of the outside terminals, then you have a problem.

But anyway... 13V is pretty low when revving. I'd check to make sure you have continuity between all three of your stator wires.

I was actually getting that voltage from the body of the rr to the frame of the bike.

Performed some tests across battery terminals. Below are readings rpm: volts with head/tail lights on and off.

Headlight off:
1400: 12.4
2500 : 13.1
5000: 13.9

Headlight and tail light on:
1400: 12.2
2500: 12.2
5000: 12.5

My battery was at 95% before these tests and at 79% after.

I just checked the rr and all 3 connections are reading 13 volts, including the body, with the bike off. Sounds like maybe I need a new regulator/rectifier

Sounds like your headlight is wired directly to your battery and bypassing the stator. The yellow wire that I believe comes from the switch has to loop back to the reg/rect.

Yup. Running it ungrounded may have cooked it.

Thanks djelliot, I'll reconnect the yellow wire going from the rectifier to the headlight switch.

@nrcb125, thanks for the recommendation. I'll try that rr out. And try not to cook it! Ha

Yellow wire reconnected. I guess I thought the only purpose of it was to bring more power back to the battery when the headlight was switched on.

thrillseeker said:

Thanks djelliot, I'll reconnect the yellow wire going from the rectifier to the headlight switch.

@nrcb125, thanks for the recommendation. I'll try that rr out. And try not to cook it! Ha

Click to expand...

No problem. Here's how my CB125S is currently wired. It works just fine. I'm not sure the problem is that yellow wire.

Note the "Headlight Control Switch Arrangement" at the bottom left. That's lifted directly from the CB125S manual and explains what happens when you turn the ignition switch on. I really doubt Honda got creative with their handlebar switches between bikes... You could always check using the diode mode of a multimeter to see if the table matches what actually happens.

The short long explanation of the switch is:
The DY and SE wires get connected so the headlight coil in your stator is connected to the reg/rect input via the yellow wire. Instead of having only 4 of the coils in the stator to deliver power you now have 6 so you can run the lights and any accessories.

The IG is the + rail after the ignition switch is set to on, which powers the headlight, tail light, etc. It should receive all power from the battery. To verify, check if there is a connection between the red wire before the ignition switch and the black wire after the ignition switch.

Also, if you do end up getting the GY6 reg/rect you'll need to verify the pins based on the chart attached. Mine happened to not be in the same order... It took a little while to figure it out. Yellow and white on the diagram correspond to yellow/pink, red to battery +, and green to ground.

Have you tried the fault finding guide yet? It covers nearly every scenario of a bad reg/rect.

Thanks nrcb125. I got part way down the fault finding guide but my battery got really low so I had to stop to let it charge back up so I get accurate readings. It seems like the rr I have is fried so I'm ordering a new one before moving on with that process. Do you think the GY6 rr will be sufficient for the 360? The bikes it describes it's for only go up to 150cc.